Clone OPatra

It's even more annoying given they are willing to reuse prints from CMF these days (though they only do it on rare occurrences), so why couldn't they just resume the Ginny CMF head instead of this one which doesn't match at all. They should do the same for Bellatrix. It's pretty hilarious too that they use the very emotionless Rey head for Lavender, whose character trait in the film is being overly bubbly. Overall, this one is a pass for me after all. Nothing new or exciting enough to make me care, and the interior is just shrug. I don't have Diagon Alley, but I never felt much attachment to WWW. The owl/post shop is pretty funny how small it is.

The evil Queen hiding inside her apple. Just what we always wanted! Quite a fun random stuff set, though it's still random stuff with desirable Minifigures tacked on.

The comment was about the minecart piece, not the track The cart piece is new, but it doesn't look in the style of HP's flat minecarts at all.

There already is an actual hourglass piece, unless you mean a new one that a Minifigure can hold as shown in the Dreamzzz poster art.

Friendly reminder: when there's a troll, don't respond. Just report. We'll sort it as fast as we can.

Nah, there are little set name graphics on blue for each set, and only 6 in the image corresponding with the 6 sets.

Collecting everything defeats the joy, but having stopped collecting you're less excited anyway? Not that both can't be true, just wondering. I'm pleasantly surprised by just this small peak we've had at the sets so far. Personally, I'd hate if I was excited about every single set in a wave, since I wouldn't be able to afford it. As it is, HP has me buying more bigger sets than I used to, with Grimmauld and the Ministry both being must haves for me last year, and BoH and WWW potentially being the same this year. Seeing two buildings with WWW has certainly piqued my interest.

I think the side walls will fold up so it'll be a courtyard with at least three sides.

Cool we get a glimpse of something. The sizing of the BoH set seems deceptive. The middle portion looks great and really large, but then Bellatrix and who I suppose is Scabior look pretty huge up on the ramparts comparatively, which means those side sections might not be all that large. Either way, it is a pretty good looking Hogwarts set. I'm very curious to see that side build from WWW. Being in the background, it looks to be pretty sizable, but again better pictures will clear that up. WWW itself looks rather facade-like, but still something I'll likely get and I'm glad it's being offered. I have no interest in the Hogwarts Express personally but it's great seeing a fully fleshed out station. That set looks excellent. The non playset ones are fine. We get confirmation it's white pants and capes for Quidditch, and that set looks like a potentially better match for the trunk concept than the (pretty bad) previous Hogwarts trunk.

We're officially in the era of LEGO being able to go as big as they want whenever they want, and doing so to their own detriment. I miss the era when only Star Wars got sets that were $200+ and a cool "big special D2C" in any other theme was like $160 max. I know we've gotten fabulous big sets out of some themes, but that old D2C Arkham was just perfect for me.

Old style is also back in the Room of Requirement. Perhaps they deemed the new two piece type not actually suitable enough for play, because it could keep breaking when being swooshed? While I personally like the new ones, they don't solve the core issue of a Minifigure awkwardly straddling the broom. I've long felt they need a a specific piece with a stick front, then a thin dimple you can slide between the minifigure's legs, then the broom tail. Only issue would be that the Minifigure then wouldn't be able to hold the broom in its hand, but I still think it'd work better for stuff like quidditch.

I think it's agreed they never existed in the first place.

2021 also had only 5 by my count. My only point is that this year isn't showing something new or exceptional.

Thing is, we're now into the third year of this mish-mash being the norm - so we've had as many years of the mish-mash as we had years when things "seemed more focussed". It can't be chalked up to there being a different lead designer, and by now any market research from 2021 when the theme took a turn from the initial three year run should start to come into effect. Presumably, what they're doing is actually working for sales. Personally I hope that the new series has a significantly different art style and look, so we could get some new Hogwarts stuff that looks vastly different, making it novel and cool. If they go for the same look as the movies, just with different actors and longer run time, why bother.

Bigfigs are dead conspiracy theory lives on. Hurray! These sets are giving me Unikitty vibes a little bit, but they are fun.

I'm excited for the Battle of Hogwarts set, and personally for the WWW set because Diagon Alley is a bit out of my price range for a single set purchase, and also just contains a lot of buildings I'm not interested in. However, I hope whatever the actual build is for the BoH set doesn't kill it. I have little interest in more Hogwarts sets in the current style, and though the Minifigure selection sounds great, the build needs to be good enough to tip me over into the buy category. The current RoR set for instance looks so atrocious that there's no way I'm buying it, and I'll just keep my eye on prices for the Grey Lady.

So how about those January parts eh? It's already mid-April...

Another obvious bald-faced flop, and not just because of the particular source material of the set, but the set itself. It's ugly. It's too jumbled to be a decent display piece. It has too many pieces and is too expensive for what it is. We adults whine about a lot of decisions, including some where LEGO does know what it's doing (the electronic Mario line for instance), but it feels like it's getting easier to spot the obvious failures and be right. Vidiyo as a whole. Massive Hulkbuster. Black Panther bust. Foosball table. No other sets are ever on 50% off from LEGO itself and LEGO Certified Stores here in Australia, but those latter three have been multiple times. I predict this will fall into a similar category for sure.

For X-Men fans who missed out on LEGO's previous offerings I'm happy, but as a long-time LEGO buyer it's frustrating to get overlaps yet again. Obviously Wolverine is super popular, but he's been available - did we really need another one? How about an accessible Jean Grey? Or Professor X! Hopefully a set with more characters does materialise, although if it's a massive $300 one or whatever, that's out of reach for me unfortunately. Luckily nothing about this list makes me too sad that I won't be buying any of the series due to it being in boxes, though I'm sure they'll have great details and stuff I want once pics come out.

What's interesting is that Star Wars Micro Galaxy "Coruscant Guard Republic Gunship" also just came out this year, 2023, so clearly that's some artwork asset that Lucasfilm has been sending around to toy licensees. The Star Wars team at LEGO really has a habit of making what everyone is hankering for. Non-canon Mace Windu squad. Gigantic Justifier. Republic Gunship except it's the red one that appeared on screen for five seconds.

LEGO? Screw up stock calculations for a release day? Well I never....

Thank you @just2good! I'd love to see if the Pinocchio head works with the mustached piece or any beards, unless you're saving that for a future cursed figures video. Now I do like at least one of Milan's faces, the angry one, but the smiling one still looks weird.

I'd be extremely surprised if this new DA set directly works with the D2C DA because LEGO just doesn't put the vacuum formed baseplates in regular sets any more. So, even if it's a new shop that hasn't been done, it'd be on a full plate thickness and have to be put on a baseplate from one's own collection to work with the older DA.

They are? I don't see them online yet though? Weird that that wave seemed to be LEGO/Certified Store exclusive here for the first month but I'm glad they're finally coming to general retail.

Those are some hot takes. Personally the new hairpiece looks consistent with the size and volume of most hairpieces nowadays, so doesn't bother me. All hairpieces are much larger than the original ones through the early 2000s were. I think the printing on Leia is technically fine, though the leg colour is wrong, but having a poncho even if it's somewhat inaccurate still feels more deluxe and preferable.